Sermon: Suited Up

"Suited Up" (August 26, 2012) We are invited to armor ourselves in God's protection so that we might face the pain and danger of living. Are we closing ourselves off from the world behind impenetrable shells, or do we still leave room, from a place of safety and strength, to engage in the world in…

Sermon: The Unspoken Commandment

"The Unspoken Commandment" (August 19, 2012) Pushed into a corner by what the Pharisees think is a clever question, Jesus names the most important commandments: to love God with all we have, and to love others as much as we love ourselves. Many of us recognize the important spiritual aspects of doing each, but hidden…

Sermon: How Long, O God?

"How Long, O God?" (August 12, 2012) In the wake of still more violence in our country and our world, we turn to the psalms of lament to express our sorrow and longing for God's presence. God longs for us, too, and cries out as well, "how long?" (Psalm 13 [read in the sermon], Luke…

Sermon: Sticks to Your Ribs

"Sticks to Your Ribs" (August 5, 2012) Jesus offers the Bread of Life-- that which truly satisfies. This gift of himself is given, in the interpretation of the author of the fourth Gospel, not in the context of death, but in the context of community, abundance, connection, and service. Where are you fed with something…

Jurisdictional Dreams

On July 23, DreamUMC hosted a Twitter Chat to reflect on the recent Jurisdictional Conferences of the United Methodist Church. In my opinion, this was one of our most exciting and fruitful conversations so far. We began by asking people in Question 1 to name the highs and lows from their Jurisdictional gatherings, or from…

Diary of a Delegate: Northeast Jurisdiction recap

I've been home from the Northeast Jurisdictional Conference of the United Methodist Church for a little over a week and a half, and I'm still mentally unpacking (although I actually did unpack my suitcase after almost a week). As I wrote earlier, I did have some hopes and dreams for NEJ. From my perspective, the…

Faith and Fallacies

My Staff Parish Relations Committee and I worked on our evaluation form last night. We dutifully and fruitfully prayed about and discussed the sense of living into Jesus the vine, and then engaged the questions on the sheet. The first one gave us trouble. We felt like the wires were a little crossed. ... Not…

Link love

Here is an column about the #DreamUMC movement I wrote for UM Reporter. I'm still working on a summary of last week's chat-- hopefully by the end of the day, and Jeremy is hard at work on the break down of work/interest groups. Stay tuned to the facebook page and twitter account!